If you’re struggling with sad succulents, looking for beginner succulent care, or wanting more knowledge on growing healthy plants, you’re in the right place. Welcome!
In this video we go over the basic but most important requirements succulents need including light, soil, the best containers to use, how to know when to water, and a few other essential tips to keeping your plants happy and multiplying.
You’ll also see several suggestions for my favorite beginner-friendly succulents – beautiful easy growers which propagate like champions too!
Knowing all of this will help you troubleshoot any issues you’re having as well as help prevent the most common problems with succulents.
For further information on propagation, repairing succulents, pest control, making dirt, and more, check out the playlists for each subject here.
My soil recipe is here.
Hey y’all! It’s Andrea with Sucs for You in Houston, Texas. Before we dive in, I just have to say a huge thank you — this channel just hit over 10,000 subscribers, and honestly, that means the world to me. Knowing I’m actually helping people is everything. Okay, okay — moving on. Class is in session!
In this Succulents 101 guide, we’re covering the four things that matter most for keeping succulents happy: light, soil, pots, and water. I’ll also share some of my favorite beginner-friendly succulents at the end. Let’s go!
The Golden Rule: Light and Water Fix Most Problems
If you’re a beginner troubleshooting a struggling plant, nine times out of ten the fix is one of two things: more light or less water. Sometimes it’s the container or the soil, but start there. Once you make the right correction, you’ll often see your plant bounce back within a week. Keep that in the back of your mind as we go through everything.
Light Requirements for Succulents
Bright Indirect Light Is the Goal
Succulents love a steady supply of bright, gentle light — but “bright” doesn’t mean direct blazing sun beating down on them for hours. The keyword is indirect. Too much harsh direct sun can fry leaves, force plants into dormancy, or even kill them.
What “bright indirect light” looks like will depend on where you live, whether you’re growing indoors or outdoors, and what time of year it is. You’ll need to observe your specific situation and adjust from there.
Growing Indoors? Consider a Grow Light
If you’re up north or don’t have a lot of natural light inside your home, I’d seriously recommend picking up a grow light. I have one on my porch here in Houston because we get plenty of overcast days, and I also use it to keep my plants warm in winter.
The best part about a grow light indoors? You can garden all winter long — potting up plants, propagating babies, having a great time — while it’s snowing outside. The lights truly pay for themselves.
How to Tell If Your Succulent Needs More Light: Etiolation
When a succulent isn’t getting enough light, it starts to etiolate — that’s the technical term for stretching. Instead of staying in a tight, compact rosette, the leaves start to space out and the stem gets leggy. The head may even start tilting toward the nearest light source.
What to do about it:
- Rotate the pot. Turn the pot so the head faces away from the light source. The plant will naturally tilt back toward the sun, and over time this can help it start correcting its shape.
- Give it a little turn every few days to encourage even, upright growth. This is one of my favorite tricks for keeping rosettes looking their best.
- Top and propagate. If the plant is too far gone, you can cut the top off, propagate the leaves, and reroot them. I have a full video on this — I’ll link to it below!
Acclimating Plants to More Light
Never go from low light to full sun all at once. You can burn your plants — yes, even indoors on a bright windowsill, and even with grow lights if they’re too close or too intense.
The right way to acclimate: move your plant to the new brighter spot for just a few hours a day at first. Watch the leaves for signs of stress — drying out or dark spots are red flags. Gradually increase the time over a week or two. Things happen (I’ve burned plants myself, more than once!), so just make corrections and keep going.
Soil: Why Drainage Is Everything
Succulent Roots Are Different
Here’s something important to understand: succulent roots don’t absorb water the way most plants do. They take in moisture from the air around them rather than sucking it up like a straw. Any water that actually sits in direct contact with the roots can cause the cells to rupture, leading to bacteria, root rot, and stem rot. This is why drainage matters so much.
What Good Succulent Soil Looks Like
Good succulent soil is fast-draining and gritty. If you look at a pot and the soil looks really dark and brown, that’s usually a sign it’s too organic and holding too much moisture. You want to see a mix that’s clearly got drainage materials in it.
Some of my favorites to add to or mix into soil:
- Pumice — Similar to perlite but not puffed. I love it. I order mine from General Pumice Products (I get the 3/16″ fines size).
- Expanded shale — Also makes a beautiful top dressing.
- Turface — A porous ceramic soil conditioner. Great for aeration.
When I’m mixing soil, I use way more drainage material than actual dirt — like two small handfuls of soil to a much larger portion of gritty amendments. The end result should look noticeably lighter and grittier than straight potting mix.
I have my full soil recipe on my website at sucsforyou.com, including where I source all my ingredients. Making your own mix is also much cheaper in the long run than buying and doctoring bags of Miracle-Gro cactus mix. Check it out!
Pots: Drainage Holes Are Non-Negotiable
You Must Have Drainage Holes
I will say this until I’m blue in the face: every succulent pot needs drainage holes. I am a proud and unapologetic Pro-Holer. It’s so rare to hear of someone having a good experience with a no-drain container. If your pot doesn’t have holes, go fix that first — then ask me what’s wrong with your plant.
To cover the drainage hole so soil doesn’t pour out, you can use:
- Small mesh or screen material
- The mesh sleeves that garlic comes in at the grocery store (save those!)
- Burlap — though it can sometimes get moldy, so it’s not my top pick
Avoid cloth or paper. You want something with good airflow that won’t trap moisture.
Unglazed Terra Cotta Is Your Best Friend
For beginners, I really recommend starting with unglazed clay pots. They’re porous, which means they actually help wick moisture away from the roots. You’ll sometimes even see mineral deposits forming on the outside — that’s a good sign the pot is breathing the way it should.
Glazed pots retain moisture more even with good drainage, so if you use them, just be a little more cautious with watering.
Have Fun With Pots — But Be Smart About It
Cute mugs, handmade ceramics, one-of-a-kind pieces — I love them all. Just make sure they have drainage holes. A power drill with a carbide or ceramic bit is a great investment for drilling your own holes in pots you fall in love with.
Top Dressings
A top dressing gives your pots a really clean, professional-looking finish. Just make sure you use the same gritty drainage materials you mixed into your soil — pumice, shale, turface — rather than aquarium gravel or decorative glass pebbles. Those pretty materials can trap moisture right at the soil surface, which is exactly what we don’t want.
Watering Succulents the Right Way
How Often Should You Water?
There’s no single universal watering schedule — it depends on how fast your soil is drying out. The rule of thumb: your soil should be fully dry within about a week of watering. If it’s staying wet longer than that, you’re at higher risk for root rot and other problems.
If your soil isn’t drying out quickly enough, try:
- Adding more drainage material to your soil mix
- Switching to a more porous pot
- Adding more drainage holes
- Using a smaller pot
- Watering less deeply or less frequently
How to Water
I like to use smaller containers with a pour spout for more controlled, shallow watering — a little tequila bottle with a pour spout is one of my favorites. Large watering cans can dump too much water too fast and splash everything everywhere.
For propagations, seedlings, or anything delicate, an old pump-style spray bottle (like a cleaned-out pesticide sprayer, just filled with water) is perfect for precise, gentle watering without knocking babies out of their soil.
Water slowly, let it run through, and watch for it to come out the drainage hole. That’s how you know you’ve watered enough.
What’s Next?
Once you’ve got the basics down, here’s where to go from here:
- Propagating succulents — making new plants from leaves and cuttings
- Repairing etiolated (stretched) succulents — the topping and rerooting process
- Treating pests — especially mealybugs, which are the most common succulent pest
I have full videos and playlists covering all of this, and they’re linked below. After watching this video, you’re probably already starting to realize what might have gone wrong with a plant or two in the past — and that’s exactly the point. You’ve got this!
Thanks so much for being here, and an extra huge thank you to all 10,000+ subscribers. I’m beyond grateful. Drop your questions in the comments below — I read everything!
— Andrea, Sucs for You 🌵
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Future video ideas, input, or questions? Please drop them in the comment area below!
✿ About Sucs For You! Featuring demonstrations of how to propagate and care for succulents and cacti, and other tips on working with these beautiful plants in challenging climates. With Andrea Afra, based out of Houston, Texas, Garden Zone 9A.
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